A MAGAZINE FOR ALL SHAKESPEARE EDUCATORS Policy • Pedagogy • Practice Issue 3 Spring 2013 teaching ISSN 2049-3568 (Print) • ISSN 2049-3576 (Online) Shakespeare EXPERIENCE OUR STUDENT TAKEOVER WITH UNDERGRADUATE CO-EDITORS LEARN HOW KELLY HUNTER ENGAGES AUTISTIC STUDENTS WITH SHAKESPEARE JOURNEY TO ISRAel WITH NOURIT MELCER-PADON TEACHING ROMEO AND JULIET INVESTIGATE WHY POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS CHOOSE SHAKESPEARE NOTICEBOARD Photo © Rob Freeman Exploring issues related to the play – of poverty, greed and family dynamics – brought us together as a group, trying to send a message to the world from a truly global platform. I left India with a secret desire to play the lead role but as I delivered my line as the first King Lear of the play, at the Tate Gallery in London, thousands of miles away from home, representing my country, my city, my family and my identity, I was proud to be in the International Youth Ensemble. It’s been one of those moments that I will never forget. ShAKESPEARE IN PERFORMANCE: ROMEO AND JULIET Thanks to Professor Michael Cordner, Theatre, Film and Television, University of York and Ian Wall, from the charity Film Education, for bringing the editors’ attention to Shakespeare in Performance: Romeo and Juliet. Film RSC INTERNATIONAL YOUTH ENSEMBLE PLAY Education describes the resource as encouraging students WORLDS TOGETHER ‘to examine the text and to consider it as the blueprint for In September 2012, Anmol Hoon from Kolkata, India, performance’: The interactive CD-ROM resource features joined 18 other students from the Czech Republic, Hong clips from four feature film versions of the play, spanning Kong, Oman, South Africa, USA and UK to form the sixty years. It also contains footage from a specially RSC’s International Youth Ensemble (IYE) for the Worlds filmed scene produced with the University of York, as Together conference in London. Together with director, well as interviews with the director and actors. Finally, Aileen Gonsalves, they had just two days to create their the disc features an interactive edit suite where students version of King Lear. can construct their own ‘filmed’ interpretation of the key scene from the specially created footage. The resource Excitement was at its peak when a bunch of teenagers is available free of charge to UK schools and colleges. The from all across the globe entered the esteemed Tate DVD can be ordered from Film Education. Modern to start working on one of Shakespeare’s www.filmeducation.org/index.php classics. We were to interpret King Lear in two days, and perform in front of a global audience. It seemed PUBLICATIONS IN BRIEF impossible but all my apprehensions and nervousness Brush up your close-reading with Shakespeare Up Close: disappeared as we warmed up to the beats of famous Reading Early Modern Texts, edited by Russ McDonald, South African songs. Nicholas D Nace and Travis D Williams (Arden Shake- speare); discover John Fletcher’s retelling of The Tempest “ Most of us did not have a common language in The Island Princess, edited by Clare McManus yet we did a play together and that made (Arden Early Modern Drama); debate Shakespeare’s me realize the beauty of Shakespeare. It place in twenty-first century American education and is not just about his words but the themes culture with Denise Albanese’s Extramural Shakespeare he explored and their relevance today.” (Palgrave Macmillan). Shakespeare united us and although I couldn’t under- stand much of what others said, I understood every- Send your notices to [email protected] thing they expressed. I was overwhelmed to see how as well as letters to the editor, ideas for articles, emotions cut across language barriers and King Lear suggestions of contributors for features such as ‘read on came alive in Arabic, Czech, Hindi, Zulu and Chinese. this book’ and ‘ask an expert’. Desgined by Becky Chilcott • Set in Bliss and Redisturbed by Jeremy Tankard Typography Ltd • Printed by Campus Copy and Print, York EDITORIAL Photo © Michelle Morton Photo © Sarah Olive elcome to the first ‘Student takeover’ issue of Teaching Shakespeare. In editing this issue, SARAH OLIVE has been joined by two students from the BA English in Education programme at the University of York: LISA SCOTT and AmELIA FwAREBROTHER. As part of their second year volunteering and enrichment project, Lisa and Amelia helped plan and compile the issue as well as researching on-going concerns related to Shakespeare in education. Lisa writes that ‘being a student editor has been may cause Shakespeare to be taught selectively, with challenging but also extremely rewarding on a multi- authors of shorter texts or using more contemporary tude of levels: soliciting contributions, finding suitable language being chosen for exploration with the majority candidates and providing guidance on the focus of of students, was apparent. features. The final result is worth every ounce of effort’. Amelia describes a similar experience made all the more Yet Shakespeare’s optional status does not always poignant by her experience in school ‘as someone who equate to the neglect of his texts. That Shakespeare hated and dreaded the Shakespeare class reader’. Their is a popular option within the NCEA’s drama course is input is reflected in the emphasis on student experience attested to by New Zealand teachers’ publicly-available of Shakespeare in a range of sectors: primary school, lesson plans – which can be found at www.tki.org.nz/r/ higher education and special educational needs as well assessment/exemplars/arts/index_e.php – as well as as the recruitment of recently graduated contributors the number of schools contributing to the Shakespeare’s such as Laura Nicklin and Sarah Dustagheer. In the last Globe Centre New Zealand’s annual nationwide Uni- issue of Teaching Shakespeare, teachers from Swavesey versity of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival. Village College shared their thoughts on Shakespeare Furthermore, it is apparent from Heather Edgren’s and assessment, offering up some diverse opinions article in our last issue and Kelly Hunter’s account (see on the benefits and critiques of the UK assessment page 7) that Shakespeare is frequently being chosen requirements. for use with students with special educational needs, despite the fact that such classes may be exempted from On a recent visit to the University of Waikato’s English curriculum requirements. The work of these educators and Education departments (funded by the York–Waikato demonstrates that their commitment, enthusiasm, and exchange), I found New Zealand schools grappling innovation are greater factors than policy in ensuring with similar issues. In the past, year 13 English students that Shakespeare really is available for all. taking level 3 of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) have been required to read and Sarah Olive study a Shakespearean drama and develop a 500 word critical response during an exam. However, his works are now set to become optional and will face competition Erratum: In the last issue we stated that Sarah Goldsby- from a host of other authors. Cross-sector concern that Smith is a PhD student with Dr Kate Flaherty. Dr Goldsby- by removing the current Achievement Standard 90722 Smith in fact graduated with her doctorate from the (English 3.3) the New Zealand Qualifications Authority same cohort as Dr Flaherty. CONTENTS NOTICEBOARD 2 EDITORIAL Sarah Olive 3 DEAR EDITOR . Tracy Irish, compiled by James Stredder 4 VOX POP: ShAKESPEARE WITH PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN Miles Tandy, compiled by James Stredder 5 GIRDLE ROUND THE EARTH: ROMEO AND JULIET’S WINTER TERM IN JERUSALEM Nourit Melcer-Padon 6–7 TEACHER FEATURE: ShAKESPEARE AND AUTISM Kelly Hunter 8–10 WHY DO POST-GRADUATE STUDENTS STUDY ShAKESPEARE? Laura Nicklin and Sarah Olive 11–14 READ ON THIS BOOK Sarah Dustagheer 15 TOP TIPS FOR TEACHING ShAKESPEARE Lisa Scott and Amelia Farebrother 16 TEACHING SHAKESPEARE 3 Spring 2013 3 DEAR EDITOR . It’s always interesting when someone questions Rather than acquiring Shakespeare as one “would the sense of a phrase you take for granted: why is acquire a new car or a house” as Jennifer Clements puts that cat in the bag? Can you be gormfull? Jennifer it, using active approaches allows students to own a Clements’s article ‘Against Ownership’ in the last text as actors do: developing personal understanding edition of Teaching Shakespeare questioned the oft- through shared exploration. In other words it is not made assertion that young people should ‘own’ a passive acquisition but is the result of a deep and Shakespeare. Pondering her words, I looked in the RSC collaborative engagement with the text. This sense of manifesto for schools, Stand up for Shakespeare, to see ownership, I believe, includes participation, as Jennifer how we had contextualised the phrase there: “Active Clements defines her preferred term, to “participate techniques ensure that experiences of Shakespeare are in the ongoing process of creating meaning out of inherently inclusive . that Shakespeare is collectively the texts,” but also adds in a right to participate. All owned as participants collaborate and build a shared young people should have access to Shakespeare and understanding of the play.” Collective ownership and opportunities to find out what he offers and there is shared understanding are what underpin the work of a value in wanting young people to feel ownership of actors creating a performance of a play and it is that a cultural resource which is common, global property. same sense of ownership that active approaches can And let’s not forget, in slang terms, ‘I own that’ means give young people. you’ve done it well! “All young people should have access to TRACY IRISH Shakespeare and opportunities to find After working at the RSC for six years, Tracy has recently out what he offers and there is a value in taken her research into Shakespeare in international wanting young people to feel ownership education into a PhD at the University of Warwick.